1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of installing a driver, and more particularly to a method of installing a driver for a plug and play (PNP) device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The computer industry has seen a great deal of progress. In order to let peripheral devices be easily connected, PNP peripherals play important roles. Almost all hardware devices (e.g., printers, scanners, modems, and display cards) have a PNP configuration. Most peripherals are not standard devices automatically supported by the host. Hardware devices sold to users must include drivers stored on optical or magnetic disks that users can install in order to be able to use their hardware devices. During the installation, the user has to instruct the host to retrieve the driver that is stored on the optical diskto complete. The installation of the PNP device is convenient when used with a driver stored on optical or magnetic disks, but the hardware device will not work if the driver disk is lost. For example, the trend of users assembling their own computer is growing, and the operation system (OS) of a host may be changed frequently. When the operation system is changed, the drivers for each peripheral device have to be reinstalled. If the disk containing the driver is lost, the hardware will not. The user may back up all of the drivers for all the hardware devices on the hard disk, but this may take up a large amount of hard disk space and cannot be considered a proper storage method.